heron, with its long white crest no thicker than a wheat straw. A skin of this bird was brought to me, by the same lucky young sportsman who had given us the snipe, which I added to the collection of curiosities that I was making in the hope of gratifying my friends on my return home with many a scarce and graceful gift. But in so warm a climate the frequent airing and turning over of either curiosities or clothes is very burdensome, and if this is neglected the pitiless moths not only have it all their own way, but much of what they leave untouched is riddled by an insect called the silver fish.
Nor does even this last devourer close the list of the marauders upon our goods and chattels. We had a great many plants of the minor bamboo in our garden, which reaches the height of sixteen feet or so, and is much in request with children who want a fishing-rod. There were some little fellows who often came to beg bamboos, and the request being one day accompanied by another for some fish-hooks, my husband, in searching for them, chanced to open the book which had contained his rather expensive collection of trout and salmon flies; but it seemed that they had been as attractive to the skin beetles as he had once hoped that they would prove to the fish, and each parchment-leaf contained a naked hook and nothing more.
The fish called coblers, which the boys hoped to catch, resembled eels somewhat, and were not ill tasted, but were more remarkable for the severely poisonous nature of their sharp-pointed back and side fins than for any merit that they possessed as food. These disadvantages considered, we should have wondered at the pains which were taken by many persons to catch coblers, had they not been,
